WVSU presentation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

3/20/2013
Contact: Dr. Donna Simon
(304) 766-3363
dsimon@wvstateu.edu

March 20, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WVSU presentation to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

INSTITUTE, W.Va. – A presentation on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is scheduled for Thursday, April 4, at 2 p.m. at the West Virginia State University (WVSU) Wilson Student Union. The event will commemorate the life of King on the 45th anniversary of his death.

“This presentation examines the neatly packaged way in which Dr. King has been memorialized through many local, state and federal landmarks,” said Dr. Carol Taylor-Johnson, WVSU associate professor of English. “We will commemorate his life by examining his writings, many of which are unfamiliar.”

Special attention will be given to the evolution of King’s development as a young African-American male growing up in the South, as well as his development as a student and political thinker.

King became well known for his role in the advancement of civil rights for African-Americans in the 1950s and 60s, including leading the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Ala. Among other accolades, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968. A federal holiday was established in his honor in 1986.

The event will take place in room 135 of the WVSU Wilson Student Union. It is free and open to the public.

West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi‐generational institution, located in Institute, WV. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.